Balancing Self Inquiry And Mindfulness

[Juan Cruz Giusto]

Hey guys! I've been doing self inquiry for the last months and in yesterday's video, Leo said to start practicing mindfulness.. My question is how do you guys balance both if you are meditating one hour per day.. Do you do one month one and then change? Or is self inquiry a mindfulness method? 

[Leo Gura]

There are many ways to skin a cat.

You could do 30 mins of each.

Or you could alternate days.

Or you could start doing mindfulness with noting while doing your chores, like brushing teeth, showering, crapping, eating, driving, walking, etc.

Or you could alternate weeks, or even months.

Or you could invest 2 hours per day instead of one.

If you've never done mindfulness with noting, a whole solid month of it would do you lots of good.

[Juan Cruz Giusto]

Thanks! I just did a session of mindfulness and I'm starting to see the usefulness to improve my inquiry

[Joel3102]

@Leo Gura what is the benefit of noting in addition to just being mindful/noticing sensory experience?

[Chrissy j]

@Leo Gura Should mindfulness meditation be added along with my normal meditation (do nothing or SDS) and self-inquiry habit (1 hr. each) or will I still get results if i just switch on and off with my mindfulness meditation with other meditations for mindfulness gains?

[Leo Gura]

5 hours ago, Joel3102 said:

@Leo Gura what is the benefit of noting in addition to just being mindful/noticing sensory experience?

Without noting, it's highly unlikely you'll be able to stay mindful. You're just going to go unconscious.

58 minutes ago, MochaSlap said:

@Leo Gura Should mindfulness meditation be added along with my normal meditation (do nothing or SDS) and self-inquiry habit (1 hr. each) or will I still get results if i just switch on and off with my mindfulness meditation with other meditations for mindfulness gains?

Mindfulness with noting will make you much more aware of individual sensations. It's hard work, but it pays off big time.

[Space]

@MochaSlap Personally I think you get more growth from doing a highly focused 30 minutes of noting mindfulness, than an hour of Do Nothing each day. That's not to say the Do Nothing technique is bad but noting mindfulness is so straight to the point and, as Leo said, your a lot less likely to go unconscious. If you've got the time do an hour of both! You can certainly alternate depending on how you feel though.

Shinzen Young has a good approach to this. He says:

If Do Nothing makes you too spacey, try Noting for a while.

If Noting makes you too racy, try Do Nothing for a while.

 

[Joel3102]

@Leo Gura Okay thanks. Yeah I've been doing 1 hour SDS a day with do nothing, but I think I'll be able to get more results if I add mindfullness while noting because I honestly feel like I go unconscious for most of the time.